surgery

Those of you who I see somewhat regularly have already heard about this, but there are some of you who might not have heard yet. I'm having my gall bladder removed this week, on Thursday. I had a couple of "attacks" last month, and upon investigation, they diagnosed me with chronic cholecystisis, which is basically inflammation of the gallbladder. No stones were visible on the sonogram, but the wall of the gallbladder was thickened (6 mm versus 2-3 mm normally), indicating chronic inflammation, which (according to what I read) can cause the gallbladder walls to thicken and become stiff.


The inflammation usually results from a stone blocking the exit to the gallbladder, causing the gallbladder to swell and become irritated. Apparently, this has happened repeatedly in my gallbladder, causing the eventual thickening of the walls. Previous episodes of irritation must have been mild enough that I didn't realize anything unusual was happening at the time - I wonder if I wrote it off as indigestion, or didn't notice it at all? Even though they didn't see gallstones on my sonogram, they can be too small to detect on the sonogram, or it can be "sludge" causing the blockage rather than actual stones. (I know, yuck! You should see the pictures of gallbladders that have been removed - if you are brave enough, try searching Google images. ((Shudder)) Kind of wish I hadn't looked now, but it does increase the incentive to get the diseased organ out of my body ASAP.)

Gallstones can also pass out of the gallbladder and get lodged in the cystic duct or common bile duct, and I think this may have been what caused the extreme pain that I experienced. The reason I think that is because I had an atypical pain location. It started in the center of my upper abdomen, between my shoulder blades in the back and radiating through to the front in the same area, which are typical areas; but then it radiated to my left side at the bottom of my ribcage, instead of to the right side at the bottom of my ribcage, where gallbladder pain is normally located. One of the articles I read said stones blocking the ducts could cause pain not just in the center and right side, but also in the left side, so it makes sense to me that that might have been the cause of my pain.

Hopefully they can complete the surgery laparoscopically - that is the plan. A small percentage (2-5%, I think) of patients have to be converted to traditional open surgery because it can't be completed laparoscopically for some reason. If they do it laparoscopically, it is outpatient, and I'll be out of commission at home for just a week to ten days. If they have to make a traditional incision... Well, I know people used to have to stay in the hospital five days for that. So I'm not sure how that works nowadays. But it would definitely involve a longer recovery. As I was sitting on the couch with Samuel this morning, and he was repeatedly bumping into, kicking or kneeing me in the abdomen as he climbed all over the couch and all over me, I was reminded that I definitely will not be able to take care of him in the days immediately after the surgery. He doesn't know how to be gentle yet. Heath's taking some time off, and we have arranged day care for a few days for Samuel with a woman nearby. I hope after those days I'll be well enough to ease back into normal routines. And I will be pleasantly surprised if I discover I feel much healthier overall after the surgery, i.e., that I was suffering from my gallbladder being dysfunctional and didn't realize it. If nothing else, I'll know I won't have another painful attack keeping me up all night or sending me to the ER for morphine, and that will be great.